Scams: What they are, and how to avoid them.

[Zaonabiuibil]

Scamming.

It is one of, if not the biggest negative of the STS games. In this guide, I will teach you what a scam is, and how you can avoid it.





Scam:

A spurious attempt at a fair deal. A fraudulent way to make quick money with tricks and lies.




Common Types of Scams:

1) The worst type, in my opinion. The account snatch. The account snatch is the sadly quite common "I'll buy you platinum for credits!" NEVER DO IT. NEVER give out your account information. It even says so on the welcome screen when you join anywhere in the game. IT'S THAT IMPORTANT. If someone offers to buy you platinum, they just want access to your account. It sounds highly insane, right? But, in reality, happens a lot more often than you'd think.

2) Doubling money. This is when someone says "I'll double your money! Give me 100k and I can give you 200k!" Really? Why would ANYONE do that? That one is hopefully obvious.

3) The snatch-up. In trade, the person removes their items right as you're about to hit the check. Then you confirm without looking over, you have nothing and they have your items/gold. ALWAYS check the confirmation window!

4) Merchant one, scammer two. This is where someone says "Buying (item X) 1m!" Now item X is way overpriced, but you don't know that. You look in auction and see it's in auction for 500k. You buy, thinking you can make a quick 500k, but the person leaves when you buy the item. He was selling the item for way more than the real value on an alt of his. Watch out, this is starting to become quite popular now.

5) The accomplice. Someone forces you to give them items or gold or they'll hack you. REMEMBER, if you don't give out your account information, they can't hack you.

6) The early farmer. You're out farming a new map for items, when, what luck! You get a new legendary! You try and sell it for 200k in town. Now a well-known pro and community member says "man, I would buy, but I don't have enough. Could I pay you 100k now and 100k later?" Knowing he is a well-known person, you say what the heck, ok, and go for it. You never see the other 100k. When confronting said person he says "dude, it's 15k in auction now. Be lucky you got 100k." You made the deal, you can't do anything.

7) The item lend. There is a reason it's called GIVE. Don't expect to get the gift back. There is little STS can do for this. You gave them the item, you knew what you were doing. Even if you're best friends. Don't expect "gifts" back. Here is a quote.

The gift function was designed as just that--to give items to other players with no expectation of having them returned to you. When you lend things this way, getting your stuff back depends solely on the goodwill of the “borrower.”

Please always keep in mind that we are on the Internet, and that there is no way to be sure who's on the other side of the connection. No matter how many raids you do together, no matter how much you hang out in-game or on the forums, unless you know someone in meatspace, there's no way to be sure that they're as cool as they've made themselves out to be.
-RS

And the thread: http://www.spacetimestudios.com/show...r+support+team

8) The stasher. If someone offers to move your items from character to character, why? You have a stash for a reason. Don't fall victim to this. Please.

9) The Midas Touch. Based off King Midas, everything touched turns to gold. A little joke I thought of for this scam. The person offers to show you a "hack" for unlimited gold, if you give them money. If they have unlimited money, why would they need to get gold from you?

10) The impersonator. Say your name is Joebob. You're a super popular person, and you have many close friends. Someone, seeing this, goes around impersonating as you, let's say they made the alt Xjoebobx. They could scam items from your friends if they lend to said scammer (Please also refer to 7) and boom. Gone goes their items.

11) The Cross-Gamer. This is simply trading between games. IT'S NOT ALLOWED. Samhayne once said "If it doesn't fit in the trade box, it's not allowed."
http://www.spacetimestudios.com/show...s-game-trades!


*Scams added by players:

I've met a scammer with "method" :

Congratulation! You've been chosen to Test New Items in Pocket Legend! You THE one StS chose! Give your account infos, we'll be giving you the item!"

____

A VERY DANGEROUS SCAM ALSO !

During event period, some players with sounding-like official names come and say :

"Free plats given by StS at "url of a website"! Enter your infos, and devs will give u platinum!"
careful, this is a scam which automatically change your account infos once they are entered

Cya

Proof the website scam exists,

^ Note added February 23rd 2013 to Chickenrunnn's addition. Recently people have been asking for people to go to a website to reactivate their accounts so they won't be deleted. DONT GO TO THE SITE. Devs will not ask for your personal info., especially in game. It's a scam, but it's become an issue recently, watch out.



Remember!!!!!!
*Always check the CS, it's not always right, but it can help you get a feel if the price is right or not!
*Make sure you can't get those items on a quest, or somewhere else for a cheaper price!
*Make sure you hit the check in the trade when you are 120% sure everything is there!
*AND NEVER, EVER, EVER GIVE AWAY YOUR ACCOUNT INFO!!!

*Will be edited with suggestions from people!

Stay sharp, and don't fall for tricks,
-Zaonabiuibil